Lehal Library

The Call to Arms 63 Guru feared that a large force would be sent against him and quickly retired to a tract near Bhatinda, where the wild and uncharted nature of the country made pursuit difficult. After a year in the wilderness, Hargobind returned to Kartarpur. Imperial troops made yet another attempt to capture him. With the Mughals was the renegade Painda Khan, who had been the leader of the Pathan mercenaries in the employ of the Guru. The Guru•s forces were encircled at .Kartarpur, but were able to turn the tables on the besiegers. Fighting in the van of the Sikh forces were Hargobind's own sons, Gurditta and Tegh Bahadur (who later became the ninth guru) .9 lm penal troops were again routed. Among the slain was Painda Khan.'0 Hargobind realized that be could not withstand the might of Mughal arms in the plains. (',0nsequently in 1634 he shifted his headquarters to Kiratpur, the haven of refuge in the Himalayan foothills. The remaining years of his life were spent in this sylvan retreat. The number of Sikhs had been steadily increasing wit.b each guru. The change of emphasis from a peaceful propagation of the faith to the forthright declaration of the right to defend that faith by force of arms proved co be extremely popular. The Punjabis were naturally an assertive and virile race, who only needed a leader to rouse them to action, Hargobind infused in them the confidence that they could challenge the might of the Mughal emperor. Great numbers of peasants answered the call to arms. The influx of superstition-ridden Hindus placed a heavy burden on the organizing abilities of I.be Guni. 11 He had to set up many more community centres and train more masands. In the earlier years, this part of the work had been taken care of by Bhai Buddha and Bhai Gurdas, and, after the death of these men, by the Guru's son, Gurditta. Hargobind entrusted more 9 Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion, IV, 206. 10 Dabisliin, n, 275. 11 Muhsin Fani, talking ofrhe Guru's years in Kiratpur, says: ·From this time the disciples of the Gum increased considerably, and in this mouiltainous counrry, as far as the frontiers of Tibet and Khora, the name of Lhe Mussalman was noL beard of.' (Dabistlin, u, 276.)